Boxergirl
Well-Known Member
I wanted to post a video of Al, my boxer with behaviorist diagnosed generalized anxiety. Anxiety is misunderstood and dismissed by a lot of people, just like it is with humans. Al's going to turn 8 at the end of the month. I've heard repeatedly that I've coddled him and if I were more of a leader and had more of his trust he wouldn't be like this. None of that is true. It's a chemical imbalance. It's a real thing and no amount of tough love or being a leader will fix it. There was a time when what you see in the video was the norm. It was then that I evaluated his quality of life daily. He's much better now than he was, but sometimes these bad days just happen. Not nearly as often as they used to, but often enough that I'm looking into event meds to help him out.
I felt alone dealing with this for a long time. I blamed myself for having done something wrong, even though I knew I did everything right. I wanted to share this video so that others that may have a dog like Al know that they're not alone. There is help. Al is so much better than he used to be. With the help of anxiety meds he's been able to disengage from his anxiety enough to learn to turn to me for help when he needs it. Mostly.
In case anyone wonders, Al just had his senior check up. He's ridiculously skinny, weighing in at only 50lbs. You can see every bone in his body. He eats like a horse though. His senior blood panel came back excellent. He's testing borderline hypothyroid, but we're not doing anything about that now and will do a recheck in 6 months. Our vet and behaviorist believe that he just worries the food off. It's kind of embarrassing to take him in public and people are plenty vocal about how bad he looks. Anyway ... this is my boy. I spent the day snuggling with him and then his favorite girl came here after work and he had a nice nap with her. He's a very good boy and I love him lots. That's Roy at the end of the video. He was upset because Al was upset. Ella didn't care too much, lol.
I felt alone dealing with this for a long time. I blamed myself for having done something wrong, even though I knew I did everything right. I wanted to share this video so that others that may have a dog like Al know that they're not alone. There is help. Al is so much better than he used to be. With the help of anxiety meds he's been able to disengage from his anxiety enough to learn to turn to me for help when he needs it. Mostly.
In case anyone wonders, Al just had his senior check up. He's ridiculously skinny, weighing in at only 50lbs. You can see every bone in his body. He eats like a horse though. His senior blood panel came back excellent. He's testing borderline hypothyroid, but we're not doing anything about that now and will do a recheck in 6 months. Our vet and behaviorist believe that he just worries the food off. It's kind of embarrassing to take him in public and people are plenty vocal about how bad he looks. Anyway ... this is my boy. I spent the day snuggling with him and then his favorite girl came here after work and he had a nice nap with her. He's a very good boy and I love him lots. That's Roy at the end of the video. He was upset because Al was upset. Ella didn't care too much, lol.